Why does Scott address it “to the public”? Try to define who he means by “the public”.

Scott clearly addresses this message to "the public", probably because he does not want his diary to published. The diary shows the struggles of the expedition and the last thoughts of the men. The "Message to the public" is, in contrast to the diary, very formal and meant for the general public.

In the message Scott praise the courage of his men and gives a lot of external factors to why the expedition went wrong. Though Scott addresses his message to "the public", he probably does not expect every average person to read it. The purpose of the message is to explain the failure of the expedition to the reputable explorers and maintain the good reputation of the Englishmen.